Increasingly, information is being moved over networks, such as the Internet, to conduct affairs of individuals, governments, and enterprises. Devices are more powerful and mobile, such that network connectivity can be acquired from nearly any spot on the globe on demand by any individual. Even with the availability of information, timely gathering it and utilizing it in a meaningful way is a real challenge.
Enterprises have expended a large amount of human resources, capital investments in equipment, and money to gather business information within the enterprises. This information is indexed, backed up, replicated, searched, and mined on a daily basis.
Typically, an enterprise's information resides in an enterprise's database (data warehouse). This data warehouse is queried using specific search criteria in order to obtain business intelligence. The business intelligence then drives daily operations of the enterprise and interactions between the enterprise and its customers.
This information gathering and mining process often precludes smaller businesses and individuals from benefiting from conventional business intelligence because these smaller enterprises lack the resources to form and manage data warehouses.
Thus, what are needed are improved information management techniques to make information more readily usable in cost-effective and timely manners.